A selection fromTHE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SOJOURNER TRUTH

Narrated by Gin Hammond

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The subject of this biography, Sojourner Truth, as she now calls
herself Ś but whose name, originally, was IsabellaŚwas born, as near as
she can now calculate, between the years 1797 and 1800. She was the
daughter of James and Betsey, slaves of one Colonel Ardinburgh, Hurley,
Ulster County, New York. Colonel Ardinburgh belonged to that class of
people called Low Dutch.

Of her first master, she can give no account, as she must have been a
mere infant when he died; and she, with her parents and some ten or
twelve other fellow human chattels, became the legal property of his
son, Charles Ardinburgh. She distinctly remembers hearing her father
and mother say, that their lot was a fortunate one, as Master Charles
was the best of the family,-being, comparatively speaking, a kind
master to his slaves.

James and Betsey having, by their faithfulness, docility, and
respectful behavior, won his particular regard, received from him
particular favors-among which was a lot of land, lying back on the
slope of a mountain, where, by improving the pleasant evenings and
Sundays, they managed to raise a little tobacco, corn, or flax; which
they exchanged for extras, in the articles of food or clothing for
themselves and children. She has no remembrance that Saturday
afternoon was ever added to their own time, as it is by some masters in
the Southern States.

Among Isabella's earliest recollections was the removal of her master,
Charles Ardinburgh, into his new house, which he had built for a hotel,
soon after the decease of his father. A cellar, under this hotel, was
assigned to his slaves, as their sleeping apartment,-all the slaves he
possessed, of both sexes, sleeping (as is quite common in a state of
slavery) in the same room. She carries in her mind, to this day, a
vivid picture of this dismal chamber; its only lights consisting of a
few panes of glass, through which she thinks the sun never shone, but
with thrice reflected rays; and the space between the loose boards of
the floor, and the uneven earth below, was often filled with mud and
water, the uncomfortable splashings of which were as annoying as its
noxious vapors must have been chilling and fatal to health. She
shudders, even now, as she goes back in memory, and revisits this
cellar, and sees its inmates, of both sexes and all ages, sleeping on
those damp boards, like the horse, with a little straw and a blanket;
and she wonders not at the rheumatisms, and fever-sores, and palsies,
that distorted the limbs and racked the bodies of those fellow-slaves
in after-life.

Still, she does not attribute this cruelty-for cruelty
it certainly is, to be so unmindful of the health and comfort of any
being, leaving entirely out of sight his more important part, his
everlasting interests,-so much to any innate or constitutional cruelty
of the master, as to that gigantic inconsistency, that inherited habit
among slaveholders, of expecting a willing and intelligent obedience
from the slave, because he is a MAN-at the same time every thing
belonging to the soul-harrowing system does its best to crush the last
vestige of a man within him; and when it is crushed, and often before,
he is denied the comforts of life, on the plea that he knows neither
the want nor the use of them, and because he is considered to be little
more or little less than a beast.

Isabella's father was very tall and straight, when young, which gave
him the name of 'Bomefree'-low Dutch for tree-at least, this is
SOJOURNER's pronunciation of it-and by this name he usually went. The
most familiar appellation of her mother was 'Mau-mau Bett.' She was
the mother of some ten or twelve children; though Sojourner is far from
knowing the exact number of her brothers and sisters; she being the
youngest, save one, and all older than herself having been sold before
her remembrance. She was privileged to behold six of them while she
remained a slave.

Of the two that immediately preceded her in age, a boy of five years,
and a girl of three, who were sold when she was an infant, she heard
much; and she wishes that all who would fain believe that slave parents
have not natural affection for their offspring could have listened as
she did, while Bomefree and Mau-mau Bett,-their dark cellar lighted by
a blazing pine-knot,-would sit for hours, recalling and recounting
every endearing, as well as harrowing circumstance that taxed memory
could supply, from the histories of those dear departed ones, of whom
they had been robbed, and for whom their hearts still bled. Among the
rest, they would relate how the little boy, on the last morning he was
with them, arose with the birds, kindled a fire, calling for his
Mau-mau to 'come, for all was now ready for her'-little dreaming of the
dreadful separation which was so near at hand, but of which his parents
had an uncertain, but all the more cruel foreboding. There was snow on
the ground, at the time of which we are speaking; and a large
old-fashioned sleigh was seen to drive up to the door of the late Col.
Ardinburgh.

This event was noticed with childish pleasure by the
unsuspicious boy; but when he was taken and put into the sleigh, and
saw his little sister actually shut and locked into the sleigh box, his
eyes were at once opened to their intentions; and, like a frightened
deer he sprang from the sleigh, and running into the house, concealed
himself under a bed. But this availed him little. He was re-conveyed
to the sleigh, and separated for ever from those whom God had
constituted his natural guardians and protectors, and who should have
found him, in return, a stay and a staff to them in their declining
years. But I make no comments on facts like these, knowing that the
heart of every slave parent will make its own comments, involuntarily
and correctly, as soon as each heart shall make the case its own.
Those who are not parents will draw their conclusions from the
promptings of humanity and philanthropy:-these, enlightened by reason
and revelation, are also unerring.

THE AUCTION

At length, the never-to-be-forgotten day of the terrible auction
arrived, when the 'slaves, horses, and other cattle' of Charles
Ardinburgh, deceased, were to be put under the hammer, and again change
masters.

Not only Isabella and Peter, but their mother, were now
destined to the auction block, and would have been struck off with the
rest to the highest bidder, but for the following circumstance: A
question arose among the heirs, 'Who shall be burdened with Bomefree,
when we have sent away his faithful Mau-mau Bett?' He was becoming
weak and infirm; his limbs were painfully rheumatic and distorted-more
from exposure and hardship than from old age, though he was several
years older than Mau-mau Bett: he was no longer considered of value,
but must soon be a burden and care to some one. After some contention
on the point at issue, none being willing to be burdened with him, it
was finally agreed, as most expedient for the heirs, that the price of
Mau-mau Bett should be sacrificed, and she receive her freedom, on
condition that she take care of and support her faithful James,-
faithful, not only to her as a husband, but proverbially faithful as a
slave to those who would not willingly sacrifice a dollar for his
comfort, now that he had commenced his descent into the dark vale of
decrepitude and suffering. This important decision was received as
joyful news indeed to our ancient couple, who were the objects of it,
and who were trying to prepare their hearts for a severe struggle, and
one altogether new to them, as they had never before been separated;
for, though ignorant, helpless, crushed in spirit, and weighed down
with hardship and cruel bereavement, they were still human, and their
human hearts beat within them with as true an affection as ever caused
a human heart to beat. And their anticipated separation now, in the
decline of life, after the last child had been torn from them, must
have been truly appalling.

Another privilege was granted them-that of
remaining occupants of the same dark, humid cellar I have before
described: otherwise, they were to support themselves as they best
could. And as her mother was still able to do considerable work, and
her father a little, they got on for some time very comfortably. The
strangers who rented the house were humane people, and very kind to
them; they were not rich, and owned no slaves. How long this state of
things continued, we are unable to say, as Isabella had not then
sufficiently cultivated her organ of time to calculate years, or even
weeks or hours. But she thinks her mother must have lived several
years after the death of Master Charles. She remembers going to visit
her parents some three or four times before the death of her mother,
and a good deal of time seemed to her to intervene between each visit.